Why should you do a walk-through prior to closing?

Why should you do a walk-through prior to closing?

You have a contract of sale to purchase your dream home. Your Realtor mentions something to you about doing a walk-through prior to closing. You are thinking -- why do I need to do that? I love the home and really don’t have the time.

Let’s assume that your contract calls for the home to be empty and ready for your occupancy immediately after closing.

You should be sure that the utilities are left on or you should have them already turned on in your name. You should not attempt a walk-through without having electricity and water on at the home.

What is a walk-through? You simply walk through the home with your Realtor to be sure that everything has been left the way the contract calls for.

Here are a couple of “horror” stories:

When one seller moved out of the home and took the oriental rug with them, there was new wood flooring under where the rug had been and it had never been stained or anything. Without a walk-through, this would not have been found until too late.

Dogs had been kept in the home and when the sellers moved out & the A/C was tuned off, the urine in the carpet began to smell -- it was “awful”. The buyers did not do a walk-thru and when they went to their new home, they could not stay the night -- they ended up having to rip out the sub-flooring and replace it as well as replace the carpet.

I could go on and on with these true stories.

Moral of this post --- do your walk-through PRIOR to closing. You need to have had the seller completely vacate the property prior to your walk through. If you should find anything wrong, the time to get it corrected is BEFORE closing.

Comments (5)

It appears that you are in Arizona -- I'm in South Carolina -- the laws vary from state to state. In SC, if you paid to have the inspections done and you discovered items, you would not have to report them to anyone (unless you are a licensed real estate agent).
In SC, we have a seller's disclosure law whereby the seller is obligated to disclosed any issues with the properties.
Since I'm not in Arizona, I really cannot assist you -- I would suggest that you speak with the broker in charge for the selling real estate agent.
I hope this helps.
Thanks for commenting on my post.

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